Attack on Rabaul (1943)

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New Guinea campaign
1st Rabaul – Coral Sea – Kokoda Track – Milne Bay – Buna-Gona – Bismarck Sea – Cartwheel – Lae – 2nd Rabaul – Cape Gloucester

New Guinea campaign
1st Rabaul – Coral Sea – Kokoda Track – Milne Bay – Buna-Gona – Bismarck Sea – Cartwheel – Lae – 2nd Rabaul – Cape Gloucester

Solomon Islands campaign
Guadalcanal – Savo I. – Eastern Solomons – Cape Esperance – Santa Cruz Is. – Naval Guadalcanal – Tassafaronga – Rennell I. – Blackett Strait – Operation Cartwheel – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Empress Augusta Bay – Cape St. George – Green Is. – 2nd Rabaul – Bougainville

Solomon Islands campaign
Guadalcanal – Savo I. – Eastern Solomons – Cape Esperance – Santa Cruz Is. – Naval Guadalcanal – Tassafaronga – Rennell I. – Blackett Strait – Operation Cartwheel – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Empress Augusta Bay – Cape St. George – Green Is. – 2nd Rabaul – Bougainville

The carrier raid on Rabaul was an air attack on the major Japanese army and navy base at Rabaul conducted by Allied aircraft carriers in November, 1943 to protect the Allied invasion of Bougainville during the Solomon Islands campaign. In the raid, several Japanese heavy cruisers and numerous other, smaller warships and transports were damaged, effectively ending the Japanese naval threat to the Allied Bougainville landings.

Contents

1 Background
2 Land based air attacks
3 Carrier attacks November, 1943
4 References

4.1 Books
4.2 External Links

5 Notes

Background

Rabaul, the chief port of the island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago, was the main Japanese naval base for the campaigns in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Simpson's Harbor — captured from Australian forces in February 1942 — was known as "the Pearl Harbor of the South Pacific" and was well defended by 300 anti-aircraft guns and five airfields.

In early 1943 Rabaul had been distant from the fighting. However, the Allied grand strategy in the South West Pacific Area, Operation Cartwheel, aimed to isolate Rabaul and reduce it by air raids. Japanese ground forces were already retreating in New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands, abandoning Guadalcanal, Kolombangara and Vella Lavella.

Land based air attacks

From October 12, 1943, as part of Operation Cartwheel, the U.S. Fifth Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, directed by the Allied air commander in the South West Pacific Area, General George Kenney, launched a sustained campaign of bombing against the airfields and port of Rabaul. The biggest raid was on November 2.

Carrier attacks November, 1943

With the invasion of Bougainville on November 1, 1943 Rabaul came under threat from another direction. A hasty attempt to drive Allied forces off Bougainville had been defeated in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. Now Koga planned to reinforce Rabaul and overwhelm the limited Allied forces around Bougainville while most of the US Navy was involved in preparations for the invasion of Tarawa.

Rear-Admiral Frederick Sherman planned to pre-empt this threat by a carrier raid. Saratoga and Princeton headed for New Britain under cover of a weather front, and launched every plane at Rabaul. No ships were sunk, but six heavy cruisers were damaged (Atago, Maya, Chikuma, Mogami, Takao, and Suzuya) and the threat to Bougainville was destroyed.

A second carrier raid was made on November 11 by the Saratoga and Essex.

Japanese cruiser Haguro under attack on 2 November 1943.

References

Books

External Links

Brief synopsis of Allied campaign to isolate Rabaul.
Brief account of Japanese occupation of Rabaul and subsequent war crimes trials of many of the Japanese troops who had been stationed there.
Account of U.S. Marine involvement in air war over Solomon Islands and Rabaul.
Information on "Pappy" Boyington

Notes

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